The two men : Adam & Jesus
Romans 5:12-21
12 October 2008
Life changing power in Jesus
We have rejoiced inbeing
justified by faith and having peace with God. Paul now compares Adam, the first
man with Jesus – God in man.
READ 5:12-21
Have you watched the BBC
programs “Who do you think you are?” I
am amazed at the title. We find people looking back into their family history
to find some identity, some sense of who they are.
Platt family? These are my
forbears. There are four grandparents and none of them bears. All four lived in
Brentford. Trace the Platts back and they were Thames watermen. Grocers was a
late change of employment. Gran (Ada was cook to the family who owned Inverery
Castle in Scotland. William is buried among the 75 000 others who died in the
Battle of the Somme.
My maternal Grandmother I know little about.
And our passage today is right
there. Your identity is in Adam and, if you have put your faith and trust in
Jesus, your identity comes from him.
So Paul makes a whole string of comparisons. I have listed them as they
appear in this passage:
12-14 Sin entered the world: original sin
15 Curse compared to grace
16 Judgement compared to justification
17 Death compared to life
18 Condemnation compared to life
19 disobedience compared to obedience
20 The Law effect
21 sin and death compared to grace and eternal life.
So why is Adam so
significant? Because he is your ultimate father. Human life began when God
created Adam and then Eve. And in case you are thinking this is sexist, Paul
makes no distinction here. Adam is identified as bringing sin into the world.
So you could read Adam and Eve for Adam. But sadly Adam is not just the first
person on earth. He is the original sinner. We will return to this in early November. For now let me remind
you that God forbad Adam and Eve to know good and evil and they choose to
ignore God and go for knowing evil. That was sin. It still is. Choosing to
rebel against God and choose your own rules. And lets be clear, sin did not
feel like rebellion, it felt like exploring new ideas and reaching out for a
new pleasure. But it is still sin, however it is packaged, whatever excuses you
give for it.
Sin is an infection far more
serious that HIV. And the infection was right there in humanity from the start.
In fact it is so part of humanity we say being human is to fail. And as Paul
will repeat in Romans 6, the wages of sin is death. The consequences of the
fall of Adam and Eve is to infect our world with sin and death. This is what is
called ‘original sin’. We try to pretend it is not there or say its not fair
but each of us was born with the bias to sin from our parents. Who do think you
are? Your parents were sinners and their parents before them, right back to
Adam.
Modern man has rebelled against this idea, saying it is unfair,
what about the children?, it is our environment that makes us bad not our
parentage!
I am not suggesting these are
full answers but I hope they send you in the right direction.
Life is not fair, but you have the same choices, just a different
context. Our Gospel is that Jesus offers a way of escape to all who believe
regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, family, environment, sexual
orientation, mental capacity or religion.
The death of an child is always particularly painful. Original sin
seems to add another pain. But our gospel is one of super-abundant grace. God
is just. He judges on your capacity for making choices. And the choice is
whether you have accepted or rejected Jesus. I believe young children are
covered by the abundant grace of God. He died for their sin as much as mine.
But once we have the capacity to know his way, we are judged. I was able to
understand enough of this at eight. And able to choose to seek his salvation.
But it is wrong to set any upper or lower limit, because this book does not. In
every case of the death of someone, we have to trust God to be just and loving.
.
This is an example of blindness to experience. In my years of teaching I came
across identical twins who were quite different. Of course, being born in a
dysfunctional family is a hard call. Many of us have deep psychological
injuries from our childhood and teenage years. But grace is strong enough for
you as well as those born with Christian parents with pots of money and good
health. God is on a rescue mission for mankind. You have come to faith as a
trophy of his grace. And the pain that you carry can only find healing in his
grace, as you know unlimited love, unreserved forgiveness. Only then can you
release the past and are released from it. That is true whatever you
background. In fact it is harder for so-called well brought- up people because
of pride, which gets in the way of receiving grace. The point of what Paul is
saying is that in Christ we can escape the heredity and the background because
he places you in a new family, the family of Jesus.
Paul points out that this sin and death applied even without the
law. Sin is rebellion against God. The Law simply points out what sins are.
Then we get to verse 15 and Paul lifts our heads up. Instead of
wallowing in the sin and death and hopelessness, we need to look to Jesus. And
Paul compares, compares and compares again to show how wonderful God’s grace in
Jesus is. Who do think you are? If you are tracing your ancestry to Christ you
are part of him,
Instead of the curses of
Genesis 3 we have in Christ the grace overflowing .
Instead of judgement and condemnation we are justified, the sin is
wiped clean away. Instead of death
reigning in humanity eternal spiritual life has broken out in Christ. Think of
it. Creation is all about life - death cycle, but Jesus is all about eternal
life.
Instead of condemnation for rebellion or trespass, because of
Jesus’ righteous act of obedience in coming to earth and dying on the cross for
you and me we have life! But not just boring old life. Paul makes up words here
to express how super-exceptionally lively this new eternal life is.
One act of disobedience infected the whole of humanity but one
supreme act of obedience to led sinners you and I being made righteous.
Paul as it were pauses to mention the Law which is not the key
problem. The key problem is the breakdown of our relationship with Jesus. But
the Law was introduced by God, through Moses, so that we knew what was wrong
with our relationship. It tells us when we are living out our rebellion. It is
not there to make sin worse, but its very existence worsens our guilt. Not only
are we rebels but we know we are rebels! The Good News is another super-word.
Grace increased all the more. Hallelujah! There is no mountain of guilt that
grace cannot tackle. There is no sin that Jesus death ha not taken on himself.
Finally we have the outcome of grace. Instead of sin bringing
death. Grace brings restored relationship with God and that is the eternal life
that we have in Christ. This is a wow! Book. At every page we are reminded of
just how wonderful our Saviour is and how great is our salvation.
The question remains. Are you a child of Adam? YES! And a such you
share his refusal to believe God and to sin. Are you a child of Jesus? Have you
received salvation through faith in his name? YES!
There
may be a financial meltdown, your money may well be locked up and some of us
will lose money. There are hard economic times ahead. But hey look how rich you
really are! You have peace with God, you have been justified, you have eternal
life, and you have super abundant grace in Jesus. Enjoy Jesus today and invest
wisely, invest in Jesus.